I Choose Happiness...

I read a little story this morning that put my head in the right place for a day - like so many others lately - where I feel like I'm running in circles and standing still at the same time! This adventure is more amazing than I ever imagined...

It really is a perfect place for me to be - The Birdie & Carol Harris School of Performing Arts. Every day is different! After teaching in the public schools for 27 years (which I loved as well!) I don't have a bell telling me to go on to the next thing, no weekly staff development that I struggle to apply to teaching music, and, maybe best of all, no lunch duty!! I get to daydream and imagine what could happen here, and create posters and websites and write music!! And then, as if it couldn't possibly get better - lessons! It's been so fun to get to know new people and share with them what my first piano teacher (Mrs. Shoulberg) and my Mom and my Grandma shared with me and so many people here in Akron - the love of making music. I imagine them both sitting in the room with us as we go over notes and fingerings and make the piano, the guitar (and the voices) speak...I hear my mom's patient voice when a student tells me they didn't get to practice much, and feel her nudges to offer encouragement...

And I guess that's maybe why the story I read this morning spoke to me so strongly. That was my Mom... choosing happiness, choosing joy, choosing to see the good, choosing to "make it a great day"... I want to be more like her, not only as a teacher, but as a person. And when I'm here at BCHSPA, I feel like there's a chance that I might actually make some progress toward that goal.

Step # 1... I choose happiness. :-)